Chapter 1
Dust rose in great plumes as my brothers and I tore off the highway and turned onto club property.
Prospect and one of the old-timers, Blaze, operated the gate at the compound entrance.
Prospect ran to slide the heavy steel gate open, and we rolled down the driveway toward the clubhouse.
Once our engines were cut, we were met with a sickening sort of silence.
Not the restful quiet of the dead of night, but the kind of silence that lies heavy and thick in your ears.
I’d felt it before, when Ellis’s body had been identified and we knew for a fact that she was gone.
For a time, it felt like we existed in a vacuum, where no sound could be heard.
I remember thinking that that must be what hell felt like…
that soul-destroying numbness. Now, I recognized that numbness for what it was.
It was a gift from the universe, a few hours of paralytic delay before the pain of grief started ripping your insides out and burning them before your eyes.
It was like anesthesia for your soul. It eventually wore off, and when it did, the real agony of life without your loved one could begin.
The only thing I didn’t know…was who we had lost this time.
The last person we’d grieved had been Ellis, and her death had rocked us all to our very cores.
Not a day went by that she wasn’t missed.
Later, when the panic and adrenaline had worn off, I’d methodically search through each and every element of tonight’s betrayal and figure out how to protect our club and avenge our fallen.
I pushed through the clubhouse’s front door, Tank, Bard, Sticks, and Thor on my heels.
All of the pool tables had been pushed back, furniture rearranged to make way for a table set up in the center of the room.
Knuckles and Bear sat silently at the bar, nodding at us with solemn expressions as we passed.
Cricket stood with an arm around my ma, who was crying quietly into his shoulder.
A body lay on the table, draped in a sheet from one of the rooms upstairs.
It could be a brother lying there, or an ole lady, or Lennon. Or Duke. I swallowed roughly.
My throat was tight, and my eyes desperate as I turned to Cricket. “Who?”